Atrial fibrillation, stroke, and mortality rates after transcatheter aortic valve implantation

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is considered a suitable treatment for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis and high operative risk. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of preprocedural and new-onset atrial fibrillation (NOAF) on mortality and stroke in patients who underwent TAVI. We performed a single-center study of 380 consecutive patients enrolled to a TAVI registry. NOAF was defined as postprocedural atrial fibrillation (AF) occurring within 30 days after the procedure. Patients were followed up for a mean of 528 ± 364 days. During follow-up, 19 (5%) new episodes of stroke occurred, of whom 6 and 18 cases occurred within 30 days and 1 year, respectively. Overall mortality during the follow-up was 68 (20%), of those 12 and 58 patients died within 30 days and 1 year, respectively. NOAF occurred in 31 (8.2%) patients and was not associated with higher stroke or mortality rates at 30 days or 1 year of follow-up. Notably, compared with patients without previous AF, patients with previous AF at baseline had increased rates of stroke and mortality at 1-year follow-up (2.1% vs 9.6%, p = 0.01, and 8.2% vs 34.9%, p <0.01; respectively). In multivariate analysis, AF at baseline but not NOAF was a significant predictor of mortality throughout the follow-up period (HR 2.2, 95% confidence interval 1.3 to 3.8, p = 0.003, and HR 1.5, 95% confidence interval 0.5 to 4.1, p = 0.390, respectively). In conclusion, previous AF at baseline but not NOAF significantly increases stroke and mortality rates after TAVI. The inclusion of AF into future TAVI risk stratification scores should be strongly considered.